Bristol BRC awarded £122k for career development of underrepresented groups

The Bristol BRC has been awarded £122,000 to support researchers from groups and professions underrepresented in NIHR to develop fellowship applications.

With this award, Bristol BRC are supporting six transition fellows: two researchers in methodology, two dieticians, an occupational therapist and a physiotherapist.

By supporting the transition fellows, Bristol BRC is helping them to develop as highly skilled researchers and research leaders and enabling more healthcare professionals to include research in their careers.

The funding will allow the fellows to spend part of their time over the course of a year developing fellowship applications, supported by colleagues and mentors in the BRC and across the region. The fellows will be supported to perform preparatory research and train in areas including patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), research communication and engagement with industry.

Bristol BRC is providing £45,000 in matched funding. It is also providing supervision, mentoring and individualised training plans to support the fellows and enhance their chances of making a successful application to an NIHR career development scheme.

Two fellowships have been awarded to methodology researchers working at the University of Bristol:

• Anna Hurley Wallace
• Charlotte Crisp

Four have been awarded to allied health professionals working at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston:

• Ben Hayes, dietician
• James Bruce, occupational therapist
• Monika Jakiel-Rusin, dietician
• Thomas Lunn, physiotherapist

Dr Leila Rooshenas, Associate Professor in Social Medicine and Health Policy and training lead at Bristol BRC, said:

“Having protected time to develop fellowships can be especially difficult for some groups, by virtue of their profession or a historic lack of dedicated funding opportunities.

We were very pleased to secure this funding and delighted to see the breadth and strength of applications that came in. We’re looking forward to supporting the successful fellows as part of the BRC, and will be listening to their feedback closely to inform future opportunities for these groups.”

Funding for the transition fellows was awarded through the NIHR Pre-Application Support Fund.